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OPETH Mainman Begins Writing Material For Next Album

PitCam.TV conducted an interview with vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt of Swedish progressive metallers OPETH at this year’s edition of the Wacken Open Air festival, which was held August 2-4 in Wacken, Germany. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked whether OPETH has begun work on the follow-up to last year’s “Heritage” album, Mikael replied, “I’ve been writing a little. I’m going on a trip soon — next week — on my own, actually, which I’ve never done before. I’m gonna bring the guitar and write some stuff, hopefully. But I think we’re still touring, and we still have another European tour coming up in the fall. And that kind of prevents me from getting too into the work — the creative process. I’m gonna start writing more from real once we finish the tour. ‘Cause I don’t have much.”

OPETH recently completed a North America co-headlining tour with MASTODON. The trek kicked off on April 4 in Portland, Maine, and visited more than 30 cities in the U.S. and Canada before wrapping up at Atlanta’s Masquerade on May 12.

“Heritage” sold 19,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 19 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band’s previous studio CD, 2008’s “Watershed”, opened with more than 19,000 units to land at No. 23.

“Watershed” was the follow-up to the band’s acclaimed “Ghost Reveries” CD, which debuted at No. 64 on the Billboard chart back in September 2005 with first-week sales of just under 15,000.